Democrats Release Documents Related to Lawyer Firings

By

Evan Perez

Updated Aug. 12, 2009 12:01 a.m. ET

WASHINGTON&mdash;House Democrats turned over to federal prosecutors thousands of investigative documents Tuesday, alleging they are evidence of impropriety by Karl Rove and other Bush White House officials in the controversial 2006 firing of nine U.S. attorneys.

It remains far from certain whether the 5,400 pages of emails and other documents released Tuesday contain information that would help prosecutors bring criminal charges against Mr. Rove, who served as former President George W. Bush's political adviser, or against any other former Bush officials.

The documents, including 700 pages of interviews with Mr. Rove and other former senior Bush aides, provided a few new nuggets of information on the prosecutor firings, which led to allegations of political meddling at the Justice Department and the resignation of Alberto Gonzales as attorney general.

ENLARGE

Karl Rove, shown in Washington in May, said he welcomed the release of documents from his time working for former President George W. Bush.
Associated Press

Mr. Rove said he welcomed the release of the documents. "They show politics played no role in the Bush administration's removal of U.S. attorneys, that I never sought to influence the conduct of any prosecution, and that I played no role in deciding which U.S. attorneys were retained and which replaced," he said.

A White House spokesman and a Justice Department spokeswoman declined to comment.

Among the new details were emails that appeared to bolster allegations that David Iglesias, the former U.S. attorney in New Mexico, was fired for partisan reasons. The emails showed that as early as May 2005, White House political aides were discussing possible replacements for Mr. Iglesias, who, the emails suggested, had fallen into disfavor with the Bush administration for declining to bring vote-fraud cases as local Republicans wanted. Mr. Iglesias has said he didn't bring the cases because there wasn't sufficient evidence.

In one exchange from August 2005, a Republican party official in New Mexico, Allen Weh, wrote to Mr. Rove and other White House officials to remind them of the need to oust Mr. Iglesias, saying, "To be perfectly candid, he was 'missing in action' during the last election." In response, Mr. Rove ordered an aide to discuss with the White House counsel's office the possibility of replacing Mr. Iglesias, according to the emails.

Mr. Weh, who is currently running for governor of New Mexico, on Tuesday portrayed his role in the firing as demonstrating his willingness to take on officials of his own party. "I have been equally critical of leaders in both political parties, those who have either betrayed the public trust or failed to do their job," he said.

Mr. Iglesias said the new documents make "crystal clear" that he and the other prosecutors were fired for "purely political reasons." He said, "What they wanted were politicized U.S. attorneys; the Justice Department just can't do that."

Much about the Bush White House's involvement is already known from thousands of pages of documents that were previously released by the Justice Department and as part of congressional investigations into the cases.

A Justice Department internal investigation in 2008 concluded that improper "partisan political considerations played a part in the removal of several of the U.S. attorneys," but was unable to conclude whether any crime was committed. A criminal prosecutor is still investigating the matter.

Rep. John Conyers (D., Mich.), chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, which conducted the latest congressional investigation, said: "This basic truth can no longer be denied: Karl Rove and his cohorts at the Bush White House were the driving force behind several of these firings, which were done for improper reasons."

Republicans said the latest documents released did little to prove the allegations against the Bush aides. Rep. Lamar Smith of Texas, the top Republican on the Judiciary panel, said "the interviews reveal no evidence of wrongdoing in the firings."

The earlier internal Justice Department probe had unveiled similar White House discussions months later. Mr. Rove and other former administration officials declined to cooperate with that investigation.

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